Re: Out of memory on SELECT in 8.3.5

"Matt Magoffin" <postgresql(dot)org(at)msqr(dot)us> writes:
> We've had nagging memory-related issues with 8.3 that manifest themselves
> like memory leaks... some posts I've made in the past have led to some
> leaks getting fixed... but I've not been able to track down more specific
> causes. It's just that over time Postgres seems to accumulate memory and
> then we start to see out-of-memory errors like this one. Again, this query
> could have nothing to do with the root cause, but this is just the example
> I have to work with at the moment.

Yeah, I remember we found a few xml-related leaks based on your reports.
However, there's not anything here to suggest that this query is
straining the capabilities of a 64-bit system with lots o RAM. It seems
certain you're hitting some artificial process-size limit, and the only
one I know about is ulimit.

I wasn't aware of /proc/<pid>/limits before, but now that I've heard
of it, checking that for the postmaster and/or a backend seems like
a great idea.

regards, tom lane